


Plans

by ClaraHolsworthy



Series: two to ten years [a journey] [2]
Category: Galaxy Quest (1999), Original Work
Genre: Death, Funerals, Gen, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-31
Updated: 2017-01-31
Packaged: 2018-12-22 05:56:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11961129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClaraHolsworthy/pseuds/ClaraHolsworthy





	Plans

you call me during _Galaxy Quest_  
just as the red shirt is realising  
that he's probably not coming back alive.  
I'm chopping jalapeños for my dinner  
when your number lights up my screen  
and I cradle you against my shoulder to talk.  
I ask about the new bookcase, the weather,  
other irrelevant things, as the cute aliens turn out  
to be evil aliens and I grate cheese onto a plate.  
"your father keeps nagging me to make a plan,"  
you say, and we both know what about.  
the heroes run for the spaceship. I warm the pan.  
"he's worried," I remind you, "he had a nightmare  
that we'd fight if you didn't leave us instructions.  
even if it's just a hymn or-"  
"it doesn't matter what I want."  
"it does, mum. not for you, but for him."  
and so I start pushing and you start giving  
and I jot down the half-remembered hymns that you list  
and on the screen the hero sacrifices himself and stays  
and there's one hymn that you love and begin to sing  
in beautiful, broken, cadences, that remind me of home  
and my dinner is forgotten, and the movie keeps playing,  
and something other than jalapeños sting my eyes.


End file.
